Uncanny X-Men, first publishe as simply The X-Men, is the flagship Marvel Comics comic book series for the X-Men franchise, it features the adventures of the eponymous group of mutant superheroes. While hugely successful now, it took a number of years since the X-Men's first issue (cover dated September 1963) to become even a mild success. The series had been out of production since 1970 until interest was rekindled with 1975's Giant-Size X-Men and the debut of a new, international team. Under the guidance of writer Chris Claremont (whose 16-year stint began with August 1975's Uncanny X-Men #94), the series grew in popularity worldwide, eventually spawning a franchise with numerous spin-off "X-Books", including New Mutants, X-Factor, Excalibur, Wolverine, X-Force, Generation X, the simply titled X-Men, and a number of prefixed titles such as Astonishing X-Men and New X-Men.